Spring Brings The St Ives Food & Drink Festival

If you’re travelling to North Cornwall this spring, this feast of the finest food and drink is not to be missed. The weekend of 18 – 19 May is the St Ives Food and Drink Festival. So if you’re staying at a holiday or lodge park nearby, the festival makes for a delicious day-out or place to stop and snack, on your way to another springtime activity.

This is a unique Cornish culinary event that celebrates and gathers some of the best food and drink producers and chefs of the region. It takes place on St Ives’ renowned Porthminster Beach and is believed to be the UK’s only beach food festival. The beach itself offers glorious views across to Gwithian and to St Ives Harbour.

Hayle’s Tregenna Castle or Riviere Sands are the closest holiday parks to the town of St Ives. Tregenna Castle is all of 10 minutes drive for St Ives and travelling from Riviere Sands takes about 20 minutes. So it’s well worth taking your family out to enjoy this local feast.

You can spend the weekend, both days or just the one, enjoying the food and drink. You can walk through the festival trying the tasting samples and either buying food to eat there, or uniquely Cornish ingredients to take home with you. You’ll also see some of the country’s best chefs giving demonstrations on how to prepare certain dishes with the local produce on offer.

The festival’s entertainment includes live music for you to enjoy. There are also so-called “food foraging walks” organised for festival-goers to go on throughout the weekend. These are a real adventure for children and a great lesson in where their lunch comes from. And especially for the grown-ups, there are Oyster and Champagne tastings.

The St Ives Food and Drink Festival is a unique experience because of it’s location, the quality local fare on offer and its wonderfully interactive goings-on, throughout what promises to be an excellent weekend.